Sunday, February 27, 2005

[corvina] Hungarian POWs in France

1HUNGARIAN PRISONERS-0F-WARI NFRENCH CAPTIVITY1945 - 1947by Bela TarczaiTranslated from the Hungarian by:Eva Barcza Bessenyey2HUNGARIAN PRISONERS-OF-WARIN FRENCH CAPTIVITY1945 - 1947I. French-Hungarian Relationsduring the Second World WarAfter the June 27, 1941 declaration of war against the Soviet Union,Hungary drifted deeper and deeper into the war. On December 7thGreat Britain declared war on Hungary and on December 13th, theHungarian government declared war on the USA.Hungary never entered into hostilities with France, partly becauseafter June 22nd, 1940 the previously accepted France no longerexisted, and partly Hungary's interests dictated to maintain thetraditional Hungarian-French friendship. Diplomatic relationsbetween the two countries were kept up; the French institutions,such as the Alliance Francaise and the French Lycee continued tofunction. In the wake of the historic events, new important forms ofcooperation developed between the two countries.Beginning with the second half of 1940. a considerable number ofsoldiers and labourers escaped from the German prisoner-of-warand forced-labour camps that were located near the Hungarianborders. Contemporary sources estimate their number to be around1,200.The main motive for this escape was the trust inspired by the officialand social treatment Hungary accorded to the Polish refugees thatbecame well-known even in the German prisoner-of- war camps.The Hungarian government entrusted the care of these refugees tothe 9th Division of the Interior Ministry and the 21st Division of the3Defense Ministry. Surpassing the stipulations of the GenevaConvention, these entities gave humane care to the Polish andFrench refugees, as well as to those of other nationalities thatfollowed them later.Germany's protests and attempts at interference made it moredifficult to look after this multinational and polyglot crowd. Thegovernment's task was further complicated by the fact that many ofthese refugees wanted to go on to rejoin the armies that fought theGermans in the Middle East, in North Africa, or France herself. Thegovernment looked at these attempts with good will and supportedthem.The government established camps for the transient and residentrefugees but did not limit their freedom of movement. Theirlivelihood was assured, in essence, by the soldiers' pay and thecivilian aid payments that were given them; furthermore, they couldaccept work that corresponded to their profession. Several taught atthe Gymnazium (latin highschool) in Godollo or the Eotvos College;others did research work at the Teleki Pal Institute and many becameFrench tutors in families. Some others did literary translations oredited a newspaper. Their amateur theatre troupes entertained theHungarian public with performances of French classical dramas. Sixwell-known researchers received a stipend of 600 pengos each.Hungarian society received and accepted the French refugees withgreat sympathy. They were invited to most social functions,developed friendships and long-term relationships; some evenmarried Hungarian girls.A paricularly stirring event was the celebration on July 14, 1943, theanniversary of the French Revolution, at Balatonboglar in theFrench camp. That year, this was the only celebration in Europe,with a parade led by Col. Hallier, the French military attache, in thepresence of Hungarian military and vivilian notables.The Frenchmen established contact with the Hungarian resistancetoo. They helped plan and participated in the execution of severalactions of sabotage. With Hungarian help, over a hundredFrenchmen escaped into Slovakia, there to join up with thepartisans. Their example was followed by many Hungarians. Col.4Hallier had planned the creation of an international brigade to helpthe Regent in his attempts at a separate peace. He also counted onthe assistance in this action of the Polish refugees.After October 15, 1944 when the far-right government came topower, some high-ranking officers in the Defense Ministry warnedthe French about the dangers they were facing. This enabled manyof them to go into hiding and thus avoid capture.During the last months of the war, the de Gaulle Committeefunctioned illegally at the French embassy with the express purposeof furthering the return of the French refugees. Once the hostilitiesceased, it took over the diplomatic representation of the country; italso took action for the improvement of the lot of Hungarianprisoners-of-war in French camps.The relationships established during the vicissitudes of wartime didnot end then. The generation that returned from Hungary continuedat home its action for the improvement of the Hungarian captives.Their organization, the "Amicale des Evades Francais en Homgrie",addressed a memorandum to General de Gaulle, alerted theInternational Red Cross, initiated a press campaign, wrote letters tothe camp commanders asking them to conduct a review of theHungarians' situation. Thanks to these efforts, from the spring of1946 on, there was great improvement in the lot of the Hungariancaptives; their status was upgraded to that of the free workers andsoon their return would be discussed.It was in clear violation of international law that France kept over tenthousand Hungarians as prisoners-of-war. The Fremch had nomoral basis for this action: for, aside from their not having declaredwar on each other, no Hungarian soldier shot at a French soldier, noHungarian pilot bombed French cities destroying houses, and noHungarian took French prisoners. Despite all this, the French putthe Hungarian captives to work as if they had caused the damage.For their work, they either got paid, or not - mostly not. Yet to thisday it never occurred to anybody at least to apologize to the relativesof those that died as a consequence of the terrible conditions at thecamps, or to those who survived them and who will foreverremember their disappointment in the French: this is not the Frenchpeople we respected! We never provoked or deserved this treatment!5II. The Fate of the Hungarian Armyafter October 15, 1944Once the Arrow-Cross Party came to power, the government wasdetermined to fill the ranks of the army. As a result of the draft and"total mobilization", about 1 million men carried arms at that time.As the Soviet troops had crossed the Hungarian borders asdelienated by the peace treaty of Trianon on September 24, 1944,the three fighting armies conducted their "defensive actions" onHungarian soil. The government sent to Austria and Germany thereserves, the armies' supply forces, and about 60,000 cadets in thehope that they will form the nucleus of a new army.At the beginning of April, 1945 the fighting units were pushed outof the country and from that moment on they headed West onpurpose to avoid capture by the Soviet forces. Thus, during the lastfew months of the war, all over Germany were Hungarian armyunits, either settled in or still moving towards the West.In December 1944, with the occupation of Aachen, the Alliesstepped on German soil. After some rest, they launched a threeprongedattack for the occupation of Germany. They madeprisoners-of-war of those Hungarian army units that they found intheir way. The commander-in-chief of the army capitulated to theAmericans on May 1, 1945 in Tann, Bavaria.In the end, there were 300- to 350,000 Hungarian soldiers andcadets that were captured by the British and American forces. It isestimated that about 700,000 were made the captives of the Sovietarmies.The French role in the final stages of the war must be mentionedseparately since it touched directly our soldiers.On January 31, 1945 on the Island of Malta, Roosevelt andChurchill coordinated their military plans for the last part of the war.They assigned no role to France in these plans. Yet in the secondhalf of April, the 1st army of Gen. Lattre de Tassigny arrived on6German territory from the South and occupied some land around theLake Boden. It so happened that some remnants of the Hungarianarmy (such as the 55th anti-aircraft unit from Szeged and themountain troops of Miskolc) found themselves facing French troopsand about 7,000 Hungarians became French prisoners-of-war. (Forthe record, French sources put at 280,000 the number of prisonersof-war captured outright, including those that became their captivesin the course of the "war of liberation".7III. Hungarians in French captivityFrance finished the second world war on the side of the victors buther situation, at the end of the war, was dire. Destructive armiesswept twice through her territory. Not only did the country have tobe rebuilt but the wounds that Frenmch honour suffered had to behealed. Gen. de Gaulle's endeavours were focussed on the need foran adequate supply of manpower for this re-building. He alsowanted France to be, together with the British and the Americans,part of the process of Germamy's pacification and de-nazification.In February, 1945 it was decided to give France 1,750,000prisoners-of-war for this re-building; this decision was based on theprinciple that whatever Germany destroyed she should rebuild.The Allied Powers made their second major decision at theconference in Yalta but it was not carried out until June. Theygranted France powers to occupy certain territories in Austria andGermany. This meant that any prisoner-of-war camps on theseterritories automatically came under the control of de Gaulle's army.However, before transferring these camps, the British andAmericans re-grouped their inhabitants in order not to have totransfer the German prisoners that were residents of their zones ofoccupatipon. This enabled them to organize their release moreefficiently. In addition to the reconstruction of France, the Allies hadanother overwhelming interest in mind: namely, to secure forGermany's inhabitants the minimal necessities of life. Therefore,they wanted to free as soon as possible those prisoners who wereagricultural labourers or workers in certain key industries.Selecting those prisoners that were to be transferred was left tochance. And "chance" favoured the Germans as they filled theleading positions in the camps. They could exert some influence on"chance", thus putting all the non-German prisoners at adisadvantagr. As a result of this "chance", some 60-70 thousandHungarians were transferred to Fremch captivity from the British orthe Americans.8In the Austrian territory ceded to France the Hungarian prisonerswere lucky in that the territory's commanding officer, Lt. Gen.Emile Marie Bethuart, in accordance with the Geneva Convention,did not consider them as prisoners-of-war but as internees. He alsohad a personal reason for doing so: he owed a debt of gratitude tohis former colleague in Belgrade, Vasvary Jozsef, for helping hisfamily escape at the beginning of the German onslaught againstYugolavia. However, he could not stop the recruiters who, withsome promise or other, lured thousands of young Hungarians tojoin the Foreign Legion.In the French zone of Germany, Gen. Pierre Koenig was not thattolerant. He maintained his position that "unconditional surrrender"meant, for the prisoners, deprivation of all their rights; thus theycould not demand application of the Geneva Convention. As aresult, the prisoners of all other nations received the same treatmentas the Germans. It must be mentioned here, though, that 3-4 monthsafter the armistice, no differentiation was made between thenationalities of the prisoners, nor were they registered personally.The quetion of nationality became interesting only when somecountries, such as Chechoslovakia - who counted themselves on theside of the victors - started inquiring about their citizens.The 7,000 Hungarians who were captured by the French "in theirown right" along the shores of Lake Boden found themselves in apeculiar position. Their treatment was haphazard. Some were senton to labour camps in France; the others were treated in the samemanner as the Russian forced-labourers who were consideredrefugees and awaited shipment home. This situation made sometrickery possible. The most determined ones escaped; othersobtained American IDs and went home with them. The remainderreceived permission to work and move freely within a 30 km. strip,a privilege of which they made good use.Those prisoners that were obliged to spend time in the camps ofFriedrichshafen and Bregenz found the treatmrent and attitude of theFrench soldiers tolerable but suffered a great deal from the brutalityof the colonial troops. The Poles, whenever they assured the camps'guard, were understanding and helpful.Food supplies, even in the workplace, were scant and monotonous.9They only received wages for their labour from 1946 on. The lastevent before their return home was the night spent in Strasbourg,where they were lodged in the dungeons of the fortress, on mustystraw, without any comfort, awaiting the departure of the liberatingtrain.Some Hungarians found themselves in the French zone of Germanyand spent time in such large French-controlled camps along theRhine as Mainz, Remagen, Sinzig, Bad-Kreuznach, Bretzenheim,and Bingen-Dietersheim, to name just the most notorious. Thesecamps, surrounded by barbed-wire and guard-towers, open to theelements, contained several thousand prisoners characterized as"transients". Camp slang liked to describe the camps with one word:the Rhineland camps earned the adjective "muddy"; Bad-Kreuznach and Bretzenheim became the "Valley of Tears"; while thelater ones, such as Brienne-le-Chateau was nicknamed "The Louse-Palace", Attichy the "Hungercamp", Poitiers and Dieppe the"Deathcamps". These nicknames were based on the most vividmemories of the camps.The inhabitants of these camps were extremely varied. Thevictorious powers put into camp anyone they could catch fromKriegshelferinen, Hungarian army nurses, the children and oldparents of the Volksturm, the Hungarian cadets and railroad-men(they, too, wore some sort of uniform) to the woumded and thelame. This hodge-podge of camp inmates was transferred to theFrench.These transfers were to the Hungarians' advantage in one thingonly: the French tried to eliminate "camping under the stars", i.e. inthe open. This in June-July 1945. There were some groups ofprisoners that got a roof over their heads in August only - sinceApril! The solution to the problem was simple: they closed the campand removed the inhabitants to the interior of France. Some campsremained; such as Bretzenheim where the prisoners were allowed tobuild their own barracks.They were transported by railroad in open wagons. To the loadngstation and from the point of arrival to their camp, the men weremarched in rows of five, all the while accompanied by the guards'shouts of "Allez vite!" On German territory the population's10sympathy and helpfulness were palpable but any offer of assistancewas rather brusquely refused by the guards. On French territory, thepopulation gave all manner of expression to the hatred and anger oftheir defeated enemies. The prisoneers were spat upon and hadstones thrown at them. At a suburban station near Paris, a youngboy armed with a huge stick constantly hit the waiting prisontransport and yelled: "Boche kaput!" A passenger train pulled ontothe parallel rails; the people in it urged the youngster onenthusiastically while spitting upon the prisoners. Unmentionableepithets filled the air. Onto another train of open wagons someonethrew an iron bar from an overhead passage, killing one prisonerand woumding others.Elsewhere a mechanic (with a sense of humour) let the water meantto refill the locomotives run onto the prisoners in their slowlymoving train to the great glee of the populace. Thus, each and everyone of them tried to exact revenge for some injury inflicted by theGermans during the occupation. The traditional enmity between thetwo peoples also played a role: the spirit of "revanche" was alive andwell.In his book published in 1998, K.I. described a tragic incident thatoccurred during a march. On August 14, 1945, the Frenchransferred 12,000 prisoners, among them 8,000 Hungarians, fromBingen to Mainz, by marching them the distance of 15 km. On theirway, the prisoners noticed a field of turnips; they all jumped ranksand started gathering them in. "Since they were many, they pulledthem out of one another's hands. The guards, at first, fired into theair to bring the crazed men back to the road. But this was in vain; themen just kept running about the turnip field. Then the guards inJeeps started firing their machine guns in front of the men in thehope that the earth they churned up would stop them. Since this didnot have the desired effect either, they brought their strafing closer,occasionally hitting someone crawling up front. This action lastedsome 15 minutes and caused many deaths among the Hungarians.11IV. CAMPS AND CONDITIONS IN THE CAMPSJames Bacque, Canadian author and an expert on the question ofprisoners-of-war, estimates that there were about 1,600 camps inFrance. According to the prisoner-of-war management, there were80 where Hungarians were also held. However, this seemsinaccurate as during my research some 140 names of camps werementioned. This divergence illustrates the difficulties that aresearcher into French - and generally Western - captivity must face.There are very few documents on this topic in the archives availableto Hungarian researchers. Special literature on this subject does notsingle out the Hungarian prisoners. There is nothing left, therefore,but to question the prisoners themselves. This poses otherproblems. Most prisoners can only revive the memories of pastevents: their documents were lost, confiscated by the former regimeor were destroyed by the prisoners themselves - out of fear orprecaution. Fortunately, original (not reconstructed) diaries havesurfaced and books that could be considered reliable source materialwere also published. In the course of my research I personallyinterviewed several hundred prisoners-of-war; many of themsummarized their experiences in writing. This enabled me tocompare the summaries that pertained to the same place and sameevent. The names of places gave me the most problems: theprisoners, not being familiar with foreign languages, could neitherorally nor in writing give me accurate geographic names that I coulduse for comparison. Fifty years have passed between the recollectedevents and the revival of their memory. It is undoubtedly true thatmemories can fade in such a long time; it is also true that thepersonal emotions have calmed down and the events were viewednot through the beautifying mist of distance but with an attempt atobjectivity.Ever since one can freely talk in Hungary of the events of theSecond World War and its consequences, there is much comparisonamong the treatments at the various western prisoner-of-war camps.The Americans were easy-going and unpredictable; the British werecorrect and generous; the French were like the Soviets except that12the captivity did not last as long.Should we want to discuss the conditions in the French camps:hunger, the infestation of lice and the diseases were made doublyworse by the obvious hatred, the spirit of "revanche" that foundexpression in constant humiliation of human dignity. At Saint Jeand'Angely, a sergeant on duty ran through the barracks in themorning, whipping the prisoners awake delivering a monologueabout how he, himself, was a prisoner of the Germans at the samecamp, how he was treated in the same way by the Germans, andhow he is now paying them back.In his book, "Historique du Service des Prisonniers-de-guerre del'Axe" published in 1948, Gen. Buisson, commander-in-chief of allprisoner-of-war camps, explains away the highly critisizedconditions at the camps by saying that they were what could beexpeted under the circumstanes.Granted that France was in ruins, her economy destroyed, herinhabitants rebellious. Still, all valuables of the prisoners did nothave to be confiscated during their frisking (sanctioned by theGeneva Convention) nor seven youngsters at camp No. 105 atStrasbourg flogged publicly for stealing some potatoes in theirhunger. It was not necessary to keep the weakened prisonersstanding for hours on the Appelplatz with the excuse of controllingtheir numbers. It is a pity that the Red Cross could not live up to itsmission. In some camps the prisoners never even heard of theexistence of the Red Coss during their whole stay. It is a differentmatter that some of the aid or the donations never reached theirdestination but ended up on the black market. For this reason thecommander of the camp at Poitiers, for instance, was relieved of hisduties. At Saint Jean d'Angely, lacking other accomodations, theprisoners ordered to office duties were sitting on sealed boxescontainng Red Cross shipments. The smart ones pilfered them. Thenon-commissioned Fremch officer explained that these werereceived under the German occupation when French prisoners werethere and therefore were not intended for the present prisoners.Naturally the clerical staff could no longer enter the office-barracks.From what the former prisoners said, it would appear that theconditions in the camps were bad but varied. They depended to a13great extemt on the camp commander's good will and on how hecould handle the German "Stammpersonal" (basic personnel). Insome cases the opposite occurred: the Stammpersonal influenced thecommander. The craftsmen/artisans, particularly the tailors, thatfound themselves in the camp, were in great demand and could domany favours for the French through the intermediary of theStammpersonal. The "atelier de couture" at Poitiers, for instance,made a series of women's suits out of American blankets. There canbe no doubt as to their final destination.From July 1945 on, in the corral No. 6 of the camp at Voves, 1,100Hungarians were mixed in with the Germans. The corral'scommander hated the Hungarians, no one knows why. Whenintroduced, he made beautiful promises but never missed amopportunity to make his power felt. A few day after our arrival, 14can-openers and 6 bars of American soap were missing from thekitchen. The Lagerfuhrer (camp leader) naturally suspected theHungarians of this theft and declared that the corral shall receive nofood until these valuables were found. What could we do but makeup the loss from our own stores. It was not too hard as we managedto save a few of these pieces from the supplies the Americans sentthat we had carefully hidden during the searches.The officer in charge established quite a court for himself. It wascomposed of young Hungarian men eager to serve. It had a cobbler,a tailor, a barber, a draftsman, an orderly, and even a gypsyclarinetist. In the hope of getting extra food, these worthies watchedfor every wish of the big boss. There also were in this court somemen of German origin from around Budapest; these acted asintermediaries with the French in their business.All this begs the question: didn't these conditions attract attention orcould they not be mentioned to someone of authority? The reply tothis lies in the fact that the prisoners lost all their rights under theterms of unconditional surrender. The actions of the Red Cross werelimited which made its protesting, as an institution, impossible. Thecomplaints of the prisoners themseles only reached somesubordinate officers and stopped there. Those Frenchmen who haddirect contact with the prisoners had no idea who the Hungarianswere. As soon as we mentioned our capital, Budapest, to elicit somefaint knowledge, they immediately talked about Bucharest. Some14more conscientious Frenchmen tried to explain our presence bymaintaining that, after all, we joined the Wehrmacht voluntarily andtherefore we had to share its fate.It is worth noting how the higher-ranking French officers viewedthe situation and their subalterns' behaviour. Their opinion variedgreatly and many tried to find excuses, as we can see from thedeclaration of Gen. Buisson. A high-rankimg French officer toldKulifay Imre, pastor of the Hungarian protestant mission in Paris,that the career officers did not take part in the plunder of theHungarians. In Poitiers a guard shot in the night a prisoner who,half asleep, looked for the latrines. The major brushed away ourprotest by saying that the Hungarians cause a lot of trouble.At the end of July 1945 the Hungarian captives at the camp at Voves- among them the cadets of the Artillery School at Hajmasker - weretransferred to St. Jean d'Angely. At that time, the about 800 cadetswere properly attired, in impeccable Hungarian uniforms. OnSunday, July 29th, the camp commander ordered them to takebaths. They were to undress at one end of the bath-house and gettheir clothes back at the other after the bath. In the meanwhile, theclothes were taken away tp be "disinfected". In vain did the boyswait for their clothes - they never came back. Instead came dirty,ragged - and naturally - lousy German and Italian uniforms rhat theyhad to wear. They looked more like scarecrows than soldiers. Thereply to the long and protracted complaining was that the Hungarianuniform looked too much like the French for the prisoners to wearthem. Within a few days the "maquis" guards who, until then servedin civilian clothes, started strutting around in Hungarian uniforms.That much for credibility. It must be mentioned in this connectionthat at the change of clothes not everybody got a shirt - or, if theydid, it was the wrong size and could not be worn. Therefore, someof the cadets appeared at the flag-raising ceremony and paradedressed in trousers only. Which provoked the camp commander tocomment to the pastor of the Paris protestant mission that "theHungarian lacked manners".These actions, the necessary exchanges, not to mention the usualwear and tear of the clothes made the Hungarians blend in with theremaining "feldgrau" (dirt grey) masses. It would have been useful,though, had the various nationalities been given outward15expression. The Austrian-born German soldiers recognized theimportance of this and wore a red-white-red ribbon ostentatiouslyeither on their caps or jackets.Once the the territory for the French occupation was establishedmasses of prisoners were transferred to France from the British andAmerican camps. For their accomodation, Gen. Buisson's remarkremains apt: "as can be expected in the present situaion." In thatcountry in ruins there truly were very few buildings oraccomodations offering minimal comfort. The barracks-campsestablished by the Germans, the available army barracks. andimdustrial buildings were all used.In his recollections, F.K. describes how they were transferred intothe French prison system from the hospital in Feldkirch. Thesupervising doctors quickly discharged the patients. The remainderhad to endure many humiliations and privations before they wereshipped to Strasbourg. There they were housed in the subterraneandungeons, sleeping on fusty straw. They received food just once aday. They became so weak they could barely stand. F.K., 173 cm.tall, weighed just 48 kg.V,K. remembers that at Brienne-le-Chateau the prisoners werelodged in the fortified palace which was surrounded by barbed wire.The German were housed on the upper stories, the Hungariansjammed into the cellar. There were mo possibilities for personalhygiene; instead, twice a day they were assembled for a head-count.K.G. remembers being captured at Sothofen at the end of March,1945 and being marched to the Lake Boden. In Weiden, in a burntouttextile factory, Moroccan soldiers guarded them whence theywere taken to Tutlingen. Here, in a gigantic open-air camp, about200,000 prisoners were jammed in. They had no food or water. Theguards got frequently drunk; then they would start shooting atrandom. It almost seemed as if they were afraid of the prisonerswhich made them nervous. It happened that they would shoot oneby one the men sitting on the latrines.He also desribed the conditions in a Toulouse prison. He wastransferred there because he wes wrongly accused, with four of hiscompanions, of poisoning a farmer's pigs. The prison-guards were16extremely rough with them, beating and kicking them. On top of itall, they had to watch the executions of some war-criminals.J.J. relates: "They took us from Bad Kreuznacht to Epinal andhanded us over to the French who marched us to Luneville. It was acruel thing to do as we were very weak and many of us fell out ofthe line but we were not allowed to care for our companions. Wehad to leave them behind. As we crossed a village, the guardsstarted to beat the men on the edge. Afterward, the officer in chargepolitely apologized saying that "this was the only way they couldprotect us from the population's anger". In Saint- Jean-d'Angely,several thousand prisoners were jammed onto the cement floors ofthe barracks. The French locked us in every night; for our needs,they placed a "pail" near the door. This was just the cut-off half ofan oil-barrel. As no one anted to sleep next to the "pail", there werefights every night. But the crowding was such that inevitablysomeone was pressed against the stinking receptacle. There was nolight in there and every night, almost every minute, the quiet wasbroken by arguments and fights among the men who wanted to heednature's call. One can imagine what the men who were obliged tosleep next to the receptacle looked like in the morning. Food wasscarce until the end. What the Hungarians missed most was bread ofwhich there was little.R.L. writes: "When on July 28th the French took over the camp atRennes, their first action was to assemble us with all our belongingsand what we received from the Americans. They confisatedeverything. All we had left was what we wore or carried on us. Asfor food: for breakfast, we received 1/2 l. of mulberry-leaf tea, forlunch 1/2 l. warm water with a few strips of lettuce- or cabbageleaves. For supper we had scrounged some coarse, greenish-yellowbread which we could eat only toasted. In the evenings, there werelots of little fires going in the camp so that we could toast the breadand roast the acorns that we gathered in the nearby forest."Details from F.J.'s recollections: "After three months of captivitywith the Americans, we got transferred to French supervision. Oneday we just noticed that at noon Frenchmen in civilian clothes cameon as guards instead of the Americans. They gave us nothing to eatsaying that they had nothing themselves. However, they let us outone by one to steal some potatoes in the farmers' nearby fields but17we were to stay within shooting distance. In exchange, we had togive clothes or shoes to the guards. I, too, exchanged clothes withone of the guards but I rued the day: instead of my good trousers, Ireceived a pair full of lice.'Health care was sketchy also: there were few doctors and fewermedications. Those that suffered from diarrhea - the most frequentillness - were put in the prison hospital but received no effectivetreatment. I am quoting from H.J.'s letter: "In the camps along theRhine, we had neither a roof over our heads, nor any medical care.There were many deaths daily, caused by hunger or final debility.The Red Cross could not offer effective help. Using their postcards,I managed to let my parents know 4 times that I am alive."Dr. M.K. writes that in most camps there were 1-2 people whoprovided medical care. These were mostly medical students,working without supplies of medication or bandages. "In thehospital in Hagenau, where I, myself, spent some time, and whereGerman physicians cooperated, conditions were adequate. Theprisoners who suffered work-related accidents were brought here."I know of 10-15 deaths in the "one potato" camp in Bingen. Somestarved to death; others, in their weakened condition, fell into thelatrine and drowned.S.B.ïs report of the fate of eight 22-year old men: "In captivity, onewas shot to death; one starved to death; one became ill after hisreturn home and died within six weeks; one was in no condition tobe transported home; one was dropped off the train; two came homeinfected with TB; and only one was healthy."As for the prisoners' spiritual care, it is hardly worth mentioning.There were few Hungarian army chaplains and the prisoners couldnot communicate with the German pastors. Occasionally the pastorsof the Hungarian missions would come from Paris but they couldnot go everwhere. In general, the prisoners tried to encourage oneanother but deep depressions ending in suicide were common.Working was the only possibility to better conditions. But becauseof bad organization and the Germans' influence, this was not alwaysopen to the Hungarians. There were camps where they could not18work at all, except at some tasks around camp. These were prettydepressing: moving the dead, cleaning the latrines, trashcollection...On the one hand, work relieved the monotony of theirbarbed-wire enclosed lives, on the other it raised the odds ofsurvival as those that worked received extra food. It also openedpossibilities for wheeling and dealing and they sometimes evenreceived wages - or at least vouchers redeemable later.As in Baden-Baden M.K.'s weight dropped to 38 kg. he was sent toa family to improve his condition. After the successful cure hevolunteered to pick up mines as the authorities promised to letanyone go home who survived a week. This, of course, came tonothing. At canp, he worked as a chauffeur - without pay, naturally.K.L. left the camp at Fort-Corneilles-en-Parisi daily to eork in thesurrounding fields. According to him, ridding the fields of the minescost many a Hungarian life or limb. He received no pay for hiswork.On the other hand, O.F. did work and even received pay in the formof vouchers. However, these were confiscated from him and hiscompanions at the screening camp at Kaposvar without anyexplanation.The most fortunate prisoners received work on farms or in industry.The French farmers appreciated good workers and considered themmembers of the family. They even received marriage proposals.However, the slave-market atmosphere of the workers' placementwas most humiliating. The prisoner were lined up in the marketplacewhere the prospective employers eyed them, chose amongthem, felt their muscles. The chosen ones or the prisoners detailedfor camp-work had to labour barefoot, or at best in clogs, to preventescapes.Although it sounds incredible and seemed hopeless, many tried,with little success, to escape. The French population did notsympathize with the prisoners. But to escape to the American zonewas a sensible undertaking as the escapees were always repatriated.The Americans even kept an official record of the French treatment.The French punished the recaptured escapees very harshly19(sometimes even by execution) despite the Geneva Convention'sexpress prohibition.In the camps, the general opinion held that the rough treatment of theFrench was motivated by their hope to recruit the young prisonersfor the Foreign Legion. It is a fact that the :egion's recruitersregularly showed up in the camps and tried to lure the young menaway with attractive promises. The temptation was great,particularly during the first few months of captivity, the "starvationperiod". Many of our Hungarians joined for a variety of reasons.Some did not wish to go home for some shady dealings; some werefired by the spirit of adventure; and others, the rationalizers, justwanted out of the depressing camps for a little while. Those thatsigned up were transported to a legion base. Sooner or later manyreturned: some were judged unfit, others got scared of the hardshipsof the legionnaire's life. The numbers differ on how manyHungarians did join the Legion and how many lost their lives inIndochina or Algeria. Accordng to Tamas Stark's well-establishedcalculations, about 20,000 Hungarians served under the Legion'sbanners.In September 1945 Gen. Eisenhower stopped the transfer ofprisoners to the French. He did that once he learned of the illegalitiesthat occurred in the French camps. The world press started writingabout them; now the Red Cross also intervened more forcefully.International medical teams visited the camps and separated thosewho became too weak to work. Most of these were handed over tothe Americans and were placed in rehabilitation camps. From thattime on there was improvement in the French camps also and finallythe repatriation of the Hungarian prisoners was discussed.The Hungarian consul in Paris, Vilmos Erodi-Harrach, reported inNovember 1945 that although the French government does notbecome involved in the repatriation of the Hungarians, it wishes toease their lot by creating Hungarians-only camps, by offering thememployment possibilities, and by putting the sick prisoners intohospitals.On March 9, 1946, Gen. Buisson informed the Hungariandelegation of the International Red Cross that the Frenchgovernment had decided to liberate the Hungarian prisoners. This20was to start as soon as their transport became possible across theAnerican zone.Beyond the ponderous bureaucracy, the prisoners received fasterand more effective assistance from society. This was provided, firstof all, by the Frenchmen who had fled to Hungary, the escapees,and the pastors of the Hungarian missions of Paris. The latterrescued some 160 cadets from the camp at Dieppe where they wereconsistently subjected to the homosexual advances of their arabguards. These were placed in French families until the details oftheir repatriation was worked out. The Red Cross freed 42 cadetsfrom Andernach in August 1945 and placed these, too, in Frenchfamilies.Frere Albert, a monk of the Marist order, and Jean Cottin, anescaped lieutenant, armed with Gen. Buisson's credentials, visitedthe camps, took aid, and forwarded messages to the prisoners'families. The chief of th Hungarian Red Cross mission in Toulousesucceeded in liberating five prisoners languishing in the dungeons ofthe fortress who were convicted on fictitious charges.There were Frenchmen who, in their own way, tried and managedto help prisoners. Mme Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, aprofessor of Egyptology at the Sorbonne, intervened for specialtreatment for her Hungarian colleague and three of his companionsat the camp at Poitiers. In the small town of Petitville, in theCalvados, a teacher and a clerk at city hall together helped fiveHungarian prisoners. In Saint-Jean-d'Angely chance brought an exrefugeefrom Hungary to the guard. As soon as he discovered theHungarians among the prisoners, he arranged for them to have 3 dl.milk a day to improve nutrition. A French farmer, returning from hisorchard in the evenings, would throw a hatful of plums over thebarbed wire.There are countless little incidents like these in the diaries andjournals. They seem insignificant, yet, at the time and under thoseconditions, they could save a life. They prove that in and aroundthose prisoner-of-war camps, cruelty did not reign supreme.The repatriation of the Hungarian prisoners did finally start in March1946 and ended, to all practical purposes, at the end of 1947. From21that time on, prisoners showed up only sporadically at the screeningcamp at home.22V. THOSE WHO DID NOT RETURN...The Second World War produced some, hitherto unknownphenomena of warfare. The consequences of some of these can stillbe felt in society.One of these is that the belligerent countries had more civilian lossesthan military. It is strange that an accurate count of these civiliancasualties is still not available; all there is are estimations. Thesewell-founded estimations are good for establishing parameters butare not satisfactory to families who don't know where their lovedones are resting.In Hungary's case the new phenomenon is that most of the militaryand civilian fatalities are buried outside of our borders and the finalresting place of many is unknown.The Hungarian prisoners' French captivity only lasted one or oneand-a-half years. But many of them died during that time as a resultof fighting, bombing raids, epidemics caused by the primitiveconditions of the camps, sporadic medical care, personal tragedies(shootings and suicides). The dead were buried someplace aroundthe camp, in marked - sometimes unmarked - temporary graves.In the 1950s, on the basis of an agreement with France, the GermanPopular Association for the Care of Military Graves, created in1919, searched out the tombs and burial places that they could find,opened them up, identified the remains and saw to it that they werereburied in military graveyards in northern France or Germany,without regard to their nationalities. At the same time, theyorganized a record-keeping and information service too. This is howthe scattered remains of the Hungarian war dead ended up in thesebeautifully planned and maintained military cemeteries.Unfortunately, 10 years after the end of the war and the prisoners'captivity it was impossible to find every grave and to identify all theremains. Therefore we could only find partial listings on thecemetery records of those prisoners who had died in France. Wesuspect that many were buried in mass graves of the unknown dead.23The question of how many men lost their lives in French captivity isjustified. As it became apparent earlier, the answer is not easy asmost counts are based on approxmations. In his book Never againwar..., dr. Papp Tibor writes: "No exact count is available of theirnumbers. According to some estimations, they numbered in the tenthousand." (This applies to all prisoners-of-war in westerncaptivity.)The starting point for an educated guess of the number of prisonerswho died in France could be the data on Hungarian soldiers buriedin France collected by the German Popular Association for the Careof Military Graves. The organization declared that it did not have acomplete list as, in the course of finding the graves and reburyingthe dead, they were unable to locate every tomb and identify everybody. The fact that during the last stages of the war severalHungarian units were under German command and receivedGerman identification numbers complicates the issue. There wereprisoner-of-war camps under French supervision in Germany alsoand those who died there were buried in German cemeteries.The French themselves are uncertain about the mortality numbers.The prisoner-of-war administration set the mortality rate at 2.4%.German researcher doubt this figure and contrast it with the 3.5%mortality rate at the camp at Rheinwiesen. To paper over thesecontradictions, the Frenmch invented the new statistical theory of"perdus pour raisons diverses" (lost for various reasons.)One must not forget that in the autumn of 1945 the Americans tookover several thousand weakened and ill prisoners, some of whomcould not be saved. Their death improved French statistics. Tofurther complicate matter, the French declared that they were notresponsible for the death of prisoners who were already ill orwounded when captured.In Hungary herself, only the prisoners' recollections are availablebut these are not very reliable as most only remember that "therewere many deaths". The Hungarian losses were not recordedseparately either by the French or the Germans. The only concretefact that emerged was the declaration of some of the artillery cadetsfrom Hajmasker who said that from April to October out of 790cadets 70 died.After all this, even the most conservative estimates will give a figureof 1,800 dead minimum, i.e. a mortality rate of 3%. If we contrast24this with the peace-time rate of 1/1000 applicable to this age group,one will grasp the severity of our losses.According to the German Popular Association for the Care ofMilitary Graves, about 400 Hungarian soldiers are recorded andburied in the graveyards listed in the annex.For decades after the end of the war we had no means tocommemorate our compatriots who died in the war. Bow, thanks tothe German Popular Association for the Care of Nilitary Graves, wehave the lists of the dead and the names of the cemeteries. OnOctober 10, 1992, in Niederbronn-les-Bains, the Association ofWar Veterans erected in the great hall of the military cemetery acommemorative column which honours all the soldiers who died inFrench captivity.Since May 26, 1992, in the hero's cemetery in Miskolc stands amemorial to all those who died in eastern or western captivity. Tereare always fresh flowers at the foot of this memorial signifying therespect and devotion of those who cannot go to their loved ones'actual grave. And here they say their prayers for those who nevercame back...25BIBLIOGRAPHYBacque, James: Der Geplante Tod (Planned Death); Ullstein, 1989Bajomi Lazar, Endre: Francia Menekultek Magyarorszagon (FrenchRefugees in Hungary) Budapest, 1980Karoly. Istvan: Francia Hadifogoly voltam (I was a Frenchprisoner-of-war), Muskolc, 1998Dr. Papp, Tibor: Soha Tobbe Haborut! (Never Again War!),Budapest, 1999Tarczai, Bela: Magyarok a Nyugati Hadifogoly Taborokban(Hungarians in Western Prisoner-of-War Camps), Budapest, 1992- - : Piros volt a Parolim (I wore Red on my Collar), Miskolc,199326FRENCH P.O.W. CAMPSIn Austria:Ailingen MuranBregenz Rum am InnsbruckFeldkirchen St. Peter / WinbergEring WšrglGscheid LustenauIn France:Agde Camp de LivronAmboise Camp de ThorŽAttichy CastresAuberchicourt / Nord Chalon sur MarneAvignon Champenoise-VigoleAubagne ChateaurouxBar -sur-Aube CherbourgBeaune-de-Rolande Clermont-FerrandBesancon ColmarBŽthune ColombesLa BŽgude Comper-en-ConcoretBreisac Corneille-en-ParisisBrevannes CotentinBrienne-le-Chateau DamignyBrumath DeciseCaen DieppeCahors DijonCamp des Sables-Fortet DragignanCamp des Anamites ƒpinalCamp des Defends par Chateauroux ErgmEspagot Montoire/BretagneFarges/Morbihen Mulhouse-St. LouisEvron MutzigFerriere-la-Vorrerie N. OrlŽansFoix Nice27Fountainebleau Nouvelle AnnecyFort Moselle ParcheFort Cormeilles Pau, Ville deFort de Noisy/Paris PiemontFoucarville PerpignanFreisine PiemontGivers PoitiersGrabyle Phehac/S ArdourGrandville Quieri LamotteHaguenau RennesHatten RiquevirHŽnin-LiŽtard RittershofenHŽrault de Beziers RivesaltesLa FlŽche RouenLamballe Saint Fons/RhoneLa TrŽmouille pres Tulle Saint Jean d'AngŽlyLe Havre Saint Priest/IsereLens/Mericourt Satonay SausheimLiŽvin/Calonne SedanLille SepmesLisle s/Tarn Sermaise-les-BainsLuneville SŽte/HŽrault MontpellierLyon StrassbourgMarkolsheim ToulouseMarseville ToursMŠrzwiller Venissieuy par LyonMŽricourt VernelMetz Vernet d'AriegeMitrachin VersaillesMontech VillemaurMontelier Vitry le FrancoisMonthier-en-Der VovesVuilnemin/DouaiIn Germany:Andernach GraffenstadenBaden-Baden KehlFriedrichshafen OffenburgKoblenz OstheimLindau SaarbrŸcken28LIST OF GERMAN MILITARY CEMETERIESIN FRANCE WHEREHUNGARIAN "POW'S" ARE ALSO RESTINGMont de Hiusnes /DŽpartement MancheBergheim /DŽp. Haut-RhinNiederbronn /DŽp. Bas-RhinSolers /DŽp. Seine-et-MarneFort de Malmaison /DŽp. AisneNoyers-Font-Maugis /DŽp. ArdennesAndilly /DŽp. Meurthe-et-MoselleMarigni /DŽp. MancheBerneuil /DŽp. Charante MaritimePloudaniel-Lesneven /DŽp. FinistereDagneux /DŽp. AinSte Anne d'Aury Morbihan /DŽp. TouraineLommel /DŽp. Limbourg, BelgiumLa Cambe /DŽp. CalvadosOrglandes /DŽp. MancheSt. AndrŽ /DŽp. EureBeauvais /DŽp. Oise29THE CEMETERY AT POITIERSAt the time of completing this report, only one list of the deadHungarian "POW's" is known to us. They are buried near Poitiers,France. The list contains 62 Hungarian names. We have reason tobelive, that most of the cemeteries near the camps mentionedbefore, hold the greaves of many hundreds of other innocentHungarians.Heartfelt thanks to the German War Graves Commission of Kassel,for making the list available to us.Name Grave No,Abay, Alad‡r 1040Ambo, Istv‡n 1157Bajkai, Imre 1420Bart, Jenš 1335BŽres, Andr‡s 1287Berta, Gyšrgy 1540Boganos, Gyšrgy 1501Bottka, Lajos 1494Csizmadia, Ferenc 1397Buday, Mih‡ly 1120Dud‡s, Jozsef 1347Durko, Imre 1318Ebner, J‡nos 1155Ešrdšgh, Bertalan 1364Erdšs, J‡nos 1187F‡skerty, PŽter 1527Fekete, Gyšrgy 1288G‡l, K‡roly 1196Gombos (Gšmbšs?), Tibor 1218Haido (Hajdœ), B‡lint 1240Joszi, S‡ndor 1156Kammel?, BŽla 1239Karsay, Ernš 1651Kepes (KŽpes?), Viktor 1263Kiss, Ferenc 1244Kiss, Mih‡ly 148030Koll‡r, L‡szl— 1341Koltai, K‡roly 1340Konyha, Lajos 1281Ligeti, P‡l L‡szl— 1507Liha, G‡bor 1406Marastzo (?), Vilmos 1468Mih‡ly, Antal 1421Nagy, Istv‡n 1305Napholcz, J—zsef 1259P‡ter, Mikl—s 1407Parocski, DŽnes 1528PŽter, AlfrŽd 1253Piller, Gyšrgy 1203Porkol‡b, L‡szl— 1458Rosza (R—zsa?), Demeter 1215Sallai, Antal 1183Sanda, Istv‡n II(?)Serester, Andor 1514Serfšzš, J—zsef 1253Somogyv‡ri, Jenš 1282Szabš, Albert 1591Szaba (Szab—?), Lajos 1197Szantner, J—n‡s (J‡nos) 1217Szške, S‡ndor 1262Szoreni (SzšrŽnyi?), Ott— 1241SzŸcs, Istv‡n 1205Szuer (SzŸr?), J—zsef 1056Tak‡cs, ElemŽr 1427Tšršk, J—n‡s (J‡nos?) 1195T—th, J—zsef 1513Udvardi, J—zsef 1384Varga, Istv‡n 1271Varga, J—zsef 1356Vaska, Gyšzš 1416Weisz, Istv‡n 1248Zs—ri, Gyula 128931